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This week's Eco News has stories of how bans, incentives and laws can set the stage for how the world's people impact the environment. Government initiatives - or the lack thereof - do have a big impact on the environment. See stories about this and more!

Swimmable Water Weekend is a laudable Waterkeeper Alliance initiative that seeks to get people out to their favorite swimming hole, lake or beach and take the plunge for clean water. Don't miss out on their photo contest with an exciting prize package (including a GoPro camera)!

Is your huge honking melon a little too much of a good thing? Are you having trouble polishing it off before it starts to wither - or do you just find yourself facing a bit of melon fatigue halfway through the fruit? Read on for some fresh ideas for enjoying every last bite of this seasonal treat - from watermelons to honeydews to cantaloupes!

To commemorate Farm Aid's 30th year, we'll be joining other good food advocates at the Farm Aid 30 concert! This year it will be held in downtown Chicago at the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on September 19!

Millions of Americans struggle to access healthful foods on a daily basis. In our last post on the topic, we discussed the reasons so many people experience food insecurity and how lack of access to good food impacts everyone in the United States - making it impossible for us to achieve true sustainability. The good news is that many organizations and programs are working to help solve this problem. Read on to learn more.

This week's Eco News has stories of how bans, incentives and laws can set the stage for how the world's people impact the environment. Government initiatives - or the lack thereof - do have a big impact on the environment. See stories about this and more!

Swimmable Water Weekend is a laudable Waterkeeper Alliance initiative that seeks to get people out to their favorite swimming hole, lake or beach and take the plunge for clean water. Don't miss out on their photo contest with an exciting prize package (including a GoPro camera)!

Is your huge honking melon a little too much of a good thing? Are you having trouble polishing it off before it starts to wither - or do you just find yourself facing a bit of melon fatigue halfway through the fruit? Read on for some fresh ideas for enjoying every last bite of this seasonal treat - from watermelons to honeydews to cantaloupes!

Millions of Americans struggle to access healthful foods on a daily basis. In our last post on the topic, we discussed the reasons so many people experience food insecurity and how lack of access to good food impacts everyone in the United States - making it impossible for us to achieve true sustainability. The good news is that many organizations and programs are working to help solve this problem. Read on to learn more.

To commemorate Farm Aid's 30th year, we'll be joining other good food advocates at the Farm Aid 30 concert! This year it will be held in downtown Chicago at the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on September 19!

There's been a flurry of activity in Congress over the past month as legislators clear off their desks and prepare to leave DC for the August recess. The cheat sheet we've created here summarizes the most significant food and agriculture related bills they've been working on, why they're important and their current status.

This week, we're thinking about the impacts - both positive and negative - of technology. From trains spilling oil to drones uncovering factory farm pollution, it's a lot to make sense of. Eco News is here to help.

Under a tent at Chicago's Green City Market, Chef Sandra Holl began selling delicious pastries with a local, sustainable touch. Four years later, she and her husband Mathieu established a brick-and-mortar location and have been dedicated to local farmers ever since. Read on to find out how Sandra keeps everything from her ingredients to food waste local and sustainable.

Americans eat over four pounds of shrimp per person per year, but the environmental and ethical problems facing the shrimp industry are staggering. Learn all about the diminutive crustacean and find out the best ways to choose sustainably and ethically produced shrimp in this week's Real Food Right Now.

When you find yourself in Las Vegas during the sweltering, 108-degree heat of the summer, is there a better way to beat the heat than to head to the sweltering, 125-degree heat of Hoover Dam? That's just what one of our staff members did recently. Check out her photos of the dam and of a rapidly declining Lake Mead.

A big part of sustainability includes protecting the Earth's creatures and habitats. On top of other Eco News, this week we bring you stories from the food, water and energy sectors about protecting the natural world - from bees, to the marshes of Iraq, to a desert island's unique dwellers.

Meet our latest Eat Well Hero, Michigan Chef Matthew Pietsch of Salt of the Earth, a rustic American restaurant focused on seasonality and sustainability. Chef Pietsch's dedication to sustainability and local cuisine includes planting and managing a huge garden (fed by compost from scraps from the restaurant) and regular trips to his local farmers' markets.

Summertime and gin go hand in hand. If you're the cocktail drinking type, nothing is better on a warm day in the sunshine than a gin and tonic on ice with a slice of lime. However, gin wasn't always so respectable. It was the favored drink of the poor, the down and out and of sailors - but it's come long way since then. And after it fell from favor in the last few decades, gin is getting a second look from craft distillers both here and abroad.

We've all heard it many times from our mothers, doctors and even Michelle Obama: eat more fruits and vegetables. But for millions of Americans, finding fresh food can be difficult. Local and organic food has become popular in mainstream culture, but a truly sustainable food system is impossible unless everyone can afford, and has access to, fresh, healthful food.

Fans, air conditioners, sitting in the shade - there are lots of ways to stay cool on hot days. Many options for cooling, like air conditioning, require energy. Let's take a closer look at air conditioning, its efficiency and a few alternative cooling options.

Sometimes it's the little things we do that make the biggest impact - especially when they inspire others. In this week's EcoNews, many of the stories we found are about just that: a food pantry brings produce to low-income people, a tweak in wording helps Californians save water and it's now easier for under-served communities to get solar. See these stories plus more!